I know you do not want to hear this, but that is simply a poor design for an oven, especially one that is in a covered area. The chimney vents directly from the firing area, the vent is too small, and it appears to be under insulated.

As a free-standing patio oven it may work passably well, but it is unsuitable for your application, and I would never recommend that design or oven to anyone.

To fix it, block the existing vent, build a proper throat and vent on the current face of the oven, and double elbow the flue back to the existing roof penetration. Not much to do about the insulation without even more major remodeling.

Just to update, manufacturer claims the design works and the 4" flue is to retain heat. I had a fireplace expert come look and waiting on his calculations and ideas. Also communicating with the installer to see what can be done once I hear back from the expert. Such a frustrating thing to deal with.

I emailed both the manufacturer and the installer this link and both have confirmed they read it. The installer is open minded to seeing how we can try to correct it and the manufacturer says there are many ways to do an oven and their system works. I'm not doubting them but it isn't working in my application and that is all that matters to me after spending so much on my yard.

Update: a week ago a local fireplace expert came by. He took measurements and calculated things. Today he called me and said he would like to remove the entire flue, enlarge the opening to accommodate an 8" steel flue and install a damper system to allow control of the draft. He also wants to cut a sliding door into the steel door for the front to allow for the door to be placed on and control the air flow in. He said with controlling the air in and out I will be able to tweak it for proper drafting and retain heat as needed.

The concept of controlling draft in and out of a WFO is intriguing. It's easy to do when controlling heat and smoke levels in an offset smoker, but it (a damper system) seems almost non-existent with WFO's. Wonder why?

A number of members have created draft doors for their ovens, but if you have an adequate flue it is not necessary. My first oven had a flue in the centre of the dome and I had an adjustable damper on the top that I could open, choke or fully close for baking and roasting. It worked pretty well. With the flue at the front, which is independent from the oven, it doesn't seem necessary to toy around with adjustable dampers, but you can.

So keeping the existing oven with a wider flue that has a controllable damper would solve my smoke issue and allow me to retain enough heat? I want to be sure before spending so much on the modification. Please advise.

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